Blandford Church Cemetery Photo Tour

Many folks visiting the Richmond/Petersburg, Virginia area to see the numerous Civil War battlefields will probably at some point eventually make their way to one of the area's National Cemeteries...Poplar Grove, Seven Pines, City Point, Glendale.  A followup question to one of these visits might reasonably be, where are the Confederate soldiers buried?

Well the quick answer is, all over the place.  That said, more than 30,000 Confederate soldiers are buried in the Petersburg city cemetery, or Blandford Church Cemetery, not far away from the earthworks they defended for nearly nine months during the Siege of Petersburg.  For this post, we'll take a photo tour through this truly remarkable cemetery.  If you ever get the chance to explore this place, don't hesitate!

Blandford Church and the marker to "Fort Steadman Heroes"...an unknown plot of those who were killed at Fort Stedman in 1865.

Entrance to the Confederate Cemetery at Blandford.

Monument to the fallen Confederate Soldiers

The grave of Major George E. Hayes of the 3rd Georgia...KIA at Weldon Railroad in '64.  The back of the monument reads..."Erected by his family Sept 13, 1869."  Hundreds of other unknown Georgia soldiers lay around him.

The grave of Clement S. Fayssoux of the 23rd South Carolina Infantry, killed in action during the Petersburg Campaign only a few miles distant.

Colonel Powhatan Robertson Page of the 26th Virginia, killed in action during the Union Army's initial attacks against Petersburg.

Monument marking unknown Confederate dead.

Private John T. Griffin of the 41st Virginia, killed in action at Spotsylvania.

Captain Samuel Venable of the 13th Virginia Cavalry

The grave of 1st Sergeant Benjamin White in the family plot at Blandford.  He grew up on Adams Street in Petersburg and was mortally wounded at the Wilderness.

Blandford Church - 1735

Private John E. Friend in the family plot, killed at Rives Farm.

Private Charles William Pollard of the Albermarle Light Artillery, killed in action at Cold Harbor.

17 year old Lt. Wayles Hurt of the 3rd Virginia Reserves..."Fell in defence of his native city."

The grave of Nora Fontaine Maury from whom General Logan got the idea for Memorial Day, or in the South, Decoration Day.  She was also a Civil War nurse.

Memorial to Major General William Phillips, British General in the American War of Independence who died of disease and is buried in the churchyard.

This is the oldest known burial at Blandford, that of Richard Yarbrough who died in 1702.

The mausoleum of Confederate Major General William "Little Billy" Mahone.

Brigadier General Cullen A. Battle from Alabama.